Ever go down to Coney Island for a day at the beach and wish things were a little more old-timey? To be honest, we don’t see why, considering you had to wear a suit to walk on the boardwalk and in case you didn’t notice, it is hot. Still, we kinda see the appeal of the old days, beyond tying an onion to our belt, which was the style at the time. The Coney Island History Project does too, which is why they’re celebrating Coney’s long history next Saturday, on Coney Island History Day.
From 1pm to 6pm on Saturday August 10, Coney will hit with an influx of ragtime music, banjo players, waxed mustaches, dudes in suspenders and bowties and women in flapper dresses. Or as they call it in Williamsburg, “Saturday,” yuk yuk yuk. Actually, you don’t have to dress like you just arrived here from the ’20s, but if you do, you get a free Wonder Wheel ride.
If you’re fine paying to ride the Wonder Wheel, or just don’t want to ride it, you can still enjoy organ grinders, clowns, a Coney Island trivia contest and tell your story to the History Project’s Oral History Archive. I have one to share, but I don’t know if it’s appropriate to share. Finally, you can also check out the opening of a new exhibit on the Vourderis family, the family that runs Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park. It all sounds both fun and educational, and, as Long Beach’s own MF Doom reminds us, “Study your history/Whoever don’t? I pity-the-fool like Mr. T.”
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